Environmental Portraiture: Tell Your Subject’s Story and Create Dynamic Portraits with One Bag of Gear

My three lenses

The lenses I use allow me the flexibility to see wide, normal, and long. As important as the focal lengths of these lenses are, so is the speed of each lens. Ambient light is important in providing the feel or mood of a photograph. So choosing lenses that are fast (meaning you are able to use a wide aperture along with a faster shutter speed), such as f2.8 or lower, increases your ability to use ambient light. If you set your aperture to f2.8, you are letting in the maximum amount of light. When shooting at f2.8, you can then use a faster shutter speed than if your lens only goes to f4.5. At f4.5, your shutter speed needs to be slower to let in the ambient light that your aperture wouldn’t allow (this is called an equivalent exposure). ...